


So Seven Years Ago

by starrystarrynight



Category: Ugly Betty
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 22:23:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrynight/pseuds/starrystarrynight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing stays the same in the fashion world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Seven Years Ago

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fujiidom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fujiidom/gifts).



"Dear God in Heaven, what have they done with that blouse? Not only is it hideously tailored, but I know it was in the May What Not to Get Laid In issue."  
"No, no, no, you are joking! Let me see, let me see!"

Papers rustled as Justin Suarez slid forward under his boyfriend's arm, gazing down eagerly at their latest faux pa discovery. This was the ninth they'd found in Collezioni alone, and it was barely 8 pm. With at least twelve more hours until the city was shoveled out, they had the whole night to do this. After all, they did have an entire binder to fill, and only four more hours till midnight, and the end of another year. There was only so much let that 2010 could offer them, but finding every last possibility was still a challange that he fully intended to enjoy. After all, the more examples they found now, the more they'd have to call upon in the coming year. And there was no victory quite so sweet as learning from other people's mistakes.

"Right there. The abernathy fitted silk bottomed with black Divon slacks and...is that a brocade scarf? Sweetheart, who died and made you queen of England?"

Unless, of course, that victory was watching Marc St. James tear into the mistakes of others. That was possibly the most entertaining sight in the world.  
It was still a shock to the younger man that they were here. Seven years ago he was just beginning to see the world he wanted to be in, tormented by the idea of public school and pouring every last second he had into both furthering his dreams and trying to support a grieving mother. The idea that everything could-would- change had never even entered his radar. And yet, somehow it had. While Betty tried to console him and his mother tried to encourage himMarc had told him the straight truth: it wasn;t the end of the world. He'd graduated from public shool, after all, and look how'd he had turned out. Besides, high school was a microchasm. College was where it was at.

One pep talk had turned into coffee, which had somehow morphed into being an after school errand boy at MODE. And when Marc had finally-finally!- gotten everything he needed to get started on his own, Justin had been free labour in the summers and on week ends. For a year and a half he'd put everything he had into 'So You', working with Marc as they fought to get what was basically a fashion pamphlet into circulation. Late night coffee, early morning meetings with editors and publishers, hours of numb fingers and wept tears had finally led to a nod from Vanity Fair on their 'Advice to Dye By' column, and suddenly everyone wanted the latest copy of So You. From a magazine formatted on a coffee table and typed on a library computer to one of the top selling small magazenes in the city had been a change that-inexplicably- had seemed to happen overnight. And Justin, fresh out of high school, had been stunned when Marc dragged him all the way to the top. Loyalty, he'd said, paid off when it was real.

Their first date had been in the office, chinese and wine as they'd celebrated their first year entirely in the black. Their first night together had been after their ASPBE award, bodies twisting under the sheets in drunken-and yet sincere- passion. The next mornign had been awkward, yes, but they'd dealt with it. One night became two, which had slowly led to them sharing an apartment, a life, and a love of the same thing.

Now, three years and almost five million dollars later, they had both changed. Marc knew the value of their relationship, knew the price of loyalty and the hurt of it being lost. And Justin....Justin knew himself, knew his place, and knew what he had couldn't have a price on it.  
Leaning back, he placed a searing kiss on Marc's lips, startling the man into leaning back.

"Oh, she thinks she's a princess alright. And Happy New Year, by the way."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry it's so bad! I lost the original, and am writing this with two minutes till the deadline.


End file.
